Tim Burton has got Dark Shadows brewing, supposedly to shoot later this year, but in the meantime he’s going to continue to be attached to various projects as creative consultant, producer and possibly director.

One new project that may have Burton involved on some level is a film based on Monsterpocalypse, a board game that is part strategy, part Kaiju Big Battel, and part Rampage!, all played out with miniatures on a tabletop. How do you make a movie out of that?

Deadline says that talks are in the early stage, and that Matt Wilson, who created the game, is on board as co-producer. Beyond that, the report just has that DreamWorks picked up the rights to the game and is chasing Burton as ‘creative catalyst,’ which is probably a fancy way of saying they don’t know how to make this thing into a movie and are hoping Burton might.

The orginal Monsterpocalypse game calls back to some of the classic Games Workshop tabletop miniatures games like Space Hulk in the way that minuatures and a contained map are used in gameplay. More specifically, from the game’s website:

Monsterpocalypse, [is] a fast-moving, action-packed strategy game…portraying the most fearsome giant monsters on Earth! Each battle takes place in a city that you and your opponent construct by placing buildings on a city map. Players choose their forces from their respective collections of figures and then battle one another with giant monsters and supporting units such as tanks, flying vehicles, and all manner of creatures. Charge your monster into the city to fight for supremacy, and be the last monster standing!

So, again, how do you make this into a film? There’s the Jumanji approach, which would see players dealing with the game come to life in some way. There’s the straight-up monster movie approach, in which case this is a pretty massive undertaking. There’s a Cloverfield sort of approach. And many others, no doubt. With Burton on board, I’d bet on spirals being involved.